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Sodachi woke up earlier than usual. The dim light filtering through the windows told her that it was only just sunrise.
Sodachi had been dealing with bad dreams all night. She kept waking up, which meant that she had far from a full night’s sleep. She was still tired, but she felt like she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep.
She could check on the chickens or walk over to the lake for water. If not that, then there were many chores inside that she could deal with. There were still dishes left over from the night before and floors to be swept.
If nothing else, she could go outside and appreciate the sunrise. She could fly up to one of the nearby hills and watch the sun illuminate the land.
However, as Sodachi paced around the room thinking, she heard a sound coming from the attic. That’s where Karen and Tsukihi slept, but they never got up this early. Karen got up before Tsukihi, but even she would only rarely get up before Sodachi usually did. Tsukihi never got up before mid-morning. Sodachi was curious, so she walked over to the staircase. Creeping up slowly, she poked her head above floor level to see what was happening.
To her surprise, Tsukihi was awake. Not just awake, but fully dressed. Yet, that paled in comparison to the more surprising thing: Tsukihi’s wings.
Tsukihi was, like Karen or Sodachi, an angel. She had feathered wings like any other angel. Like Karen, her wings were still pure and white.
Not anymore. Her wings weren’t just black like Sodachi— they were leathery, like a bat. Moreover, she had horns like Sodachi did, but they were different horns. Not the horns of a fallen angel, but the horns of a demon. Her tail only drove the point home.
Sodachi gasped. Even for a fallen angel such as herself, it was a shock. This wasn’t just a demon in her midst. She had been living alongside Tsukihi for several months. It was stunning to think that a demon had been sleeping just a few meters above her head each night.
Tsukihi heard her gasp. She turned to see Sodachi, but unexpectedly, she blushed. She looked down at Karen, who was still sleeping soundly. Then, she hurried over to the staircase. She gestured for Sodachi to go downstairs, then hurried down after her as quietly as she could. Once downstairs, Tsukihi pushed Sodachi until they were both outside. From there, she ran a few dozen meters away, beckoning for Sodachi to follow.
Eventually, they stopped on the edge of the treeline of the nearby forest. Tsukihi paced until she found a rock they could both sit on. All the while, Sodachi was gaping at Tsukihi’s demonic features.
The other girl seemed hardly aware that Sodachi was doing that. That was, until they were sitting down, when she finally said, “I know, I know… It’s a long story, okay?”
Sodachi didn’t know what to say to that. If she had known Tsukihi was a demon from the start…
Well, what would that mean? She knew Tsukihi. She had been living with her for several months. Even before that, they had been acquainted in heaven. Sodachi knew that Tsukihi was a good person… or at least that she presented herself as such. If Tsukihi really had a malicious heart, then she was hiding it well. Besides, to what end would she be doing this? There weren’t exactly opportunities to do something uncouth in heaven.
And besides, Tsukihi had a family. Did they know about this? Was Karen aware that her sister was a demon?
Sodachi wanted Tsukihi to explain.
Thankfully, she did just that.
“I didn’t try to lie… It wasn’t my choice to appear in heaven. It just happened as it happened. I quickly learned that I had to hide my form, but if I passed myself off as an angel, nobody cared or noticed. It’s not like I’m really evil, you know. I’m no different from you or Karen. Please don’t think differently of me because of this…”
It was a side of Tsukihi that Sodachi had never seen before. She was humble and… scared. If she was anything, she was scared. She seemed to understand the power that Sodachi now had over her. However vulnerable Sodachi was because of her status as a fallen angel, it was nothing compared to Tsukihi. Tsukihi would be condemned to damnation for being a demon, to say nothing of her passing herself off as an angel.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” Sodachi wasn’t in any kind of position to judge. “I’ll keep your secret from the others.”
Tsukihi nodded. “Thank you.” Then, suddenly, her mood switched. She was back to being a cheerful little sister. “It’s a good thing that Karen sleeps as much as she does, so that I can get up early.”
Tsukihi stood up, then closed her eyes. After a few moments, her body began to shimmer. Slowly, her tail and horns faded away, while her wings changed shape and nature. When she was done, she looked like her usual self— that was to say, a perfectly normal angel.
Sodachi had a thought. Tsukihi voiced it before she could. “You know, you could use this method to hide the fact that you fell.”
“I wouldn’t want to.” Sodachi shook her head. “I deserve this. It’s my fault, so I should bear the weight of my sins. To do that was the reason I fell in the first place. It’s not right to run away.”
Tsukihi shrugged. “It’s up to you.”
Now that she was done with her morning ritual, Tsukihi was about to head back to the house, so she could finish her morning sleep. Sodachi had a better understanding of why she always slept in so late now.
Still, Sodachi wasn’t going to let her run off just yet. Before Tsukihi could get far, Sodachi caught up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Before you leave…”
Sodachi had chores to do. If Tsukihi was awake this early, then she would be recruited to help. That was twice the water that they could carry back, after all.
It was a small price to pay for Sodachi keeping her secret.